BILL NUMBER: AB 2423	CHAPTERED  08/28/00

	CHAPTER   251
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   AUGUST 28, 2000
	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR   AUGUST 25, 2000
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY   AUGUST 10, 2000
	PASSED THE SENATE   JULY 6, 2000
	AMENDED IN SENATE   JUNE 1, 2000
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   APRIL 12, 2000
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   MARCH 29, 2000

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Firebaugh

                        FEBRUARY 24, 2000

   An act to amend Section 655.5 of the Business and Professions
Code, relating to clinical laboratories.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2423, Firebaugh.  Clinical laboratory fees.
   Existing law prohibits licensed persons of various professions
from charging fees to patients for clinical laboratory services not
directly performed by the licensed persons.  A violation of this
prohibition is a crime.
   This bill would exempt from the prohibition wholly owned
subsidiaries, parent companies, and other subsidiary companies as
specified, of persons who are licensed under the clinical laboratory
licensing provisions and who own clinical laboratories.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Section 655.5 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
   655.5.  (a) It is unlawful for any person licensed under this
division or under any initiative act referred to in this division, or
any clinical laboratory, or any health facility when billing for a
clinical laboratory of the facility, to charge, bill, or otherwise
solicit payment from any patient, client, or customer for any
clinical laboratory service not actually rendered by the person or
clinical laboratory or under his, her or its direct supervision
unless the patient, client, or customer is apprised at the first time
of the charge, billing, or solicitation of the name, address, and
charges of the clinical laboratory performing the service.  The first
such written charge, bill, or other solicitation of payment shall
separately set forth the name, address, and charges of the clinical
laboratory concerned and shall clearly show whether or not the charge
is included in the total of the account, bill, or charge.  This
subdivision shall be satisfied if the required disclosures are made
to the third-party payer of the patient, client, or customer.  If the
patient is responsible for submitting the bill for the charges to
the third-party payer, the bill provided to the patient for that
purpose shall include the disclosures required by this section.  This
subdivision shall not apply to a clinical laboratory of a health
facility or a health facility when billing for a clinical laboratory
of the facility nor to a person licensed under this division or under
any initiative act referred to in this division if the standardized
billing form used by the facility or person requires a summary entry
for all clinical laboratory charges.  For purposes of this
subdivision, "health facility" has the same meaning as defined in
Section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code.
   (b) Commencing July 1, 1994, a clinical laboratory shall provide
to each of its referring providers, upon request, a schedule of fees
for services provided to patients of the referring provider.  The
schedule shall be provided within two working days after the clinical
laboratory receives the request.  For the purposes of this
subdivision, a "referring provider" means any provider who has
referred a patient to the clinical laboratory in the preceding
six-month period.  Commencing July 1, 1994, a clinical laboratory
that provides a list of laboratory services to a referring provider
or to a potential referring provider shall include a schedule of fees
for the laboratory services listed.
   (c) It is also unlawful for any person licensed under this
division or under any initiative act referred to in this division to
charge additional charges for any clinical laboratory service that is
not actually rendered by the licensee to the patient and itemized in
the charge, bill, or other solicitation of payment.  This section
shall not be construed to prohibit any of the following:
   (1) Any itemized charge for any service actually rendered to the
patient by the licensee.
   (2) Any summary charge for services actually rendered to a patient
by a health facility, as defined in Section 1250 of the Health and
Safety Code, or by a person licensed under this division or under any
initiative act referred to in this division if the standardized
billing form used by the facility or person requires a summary entry
for all clinical laboratory charges.
   (d) As used in this section, the term "any person licensed under
this division" includes a person licensed under paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a) of Section 1265, all wholly owned subsidiaries of the
person, a parent company that wholly owns the person, and any
subsidiaries wholly owned by the same parent that wholly owns the
person.  "Wholly owned" means ownership directly or through one or
more subsidiaries.  This section shall not apply to billings by a
person licensed under paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section
1265 when the person licensed under paragraph (1) of subdivision (a)
of Section 1265 bills for services performed by any laboratory owned
or operated by the person licensed under paragraph (1) of subdivision
(a) of Section 1265.
   (e) This section shall not apply to any person or clinical
laboratory who or which contracts directly with a health care service
plan licensed pursuant to Section 1349 of the Health and Safety
Code, if the services are to be provided to members of the plan on a
prepaid basis and without additional charge or liability on account
thereof.
   (f) A violation of this section is a public offense and is
punishable upon a first conviction by imprisonment in the county jail
for not more than one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison,
or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both
that imprisonment and fine.  A second or subsequent conviction is
punishable by imprisonment in the state prison.
   (g) (1) Notwithstanding subdivision (f), a violation of this
section by a physician and surgeon for a first offense shall be
subject to the exclusive remedy of reprimand by the Medical Board of
California if the transaction that is the subject of the violation
involves a charge for a clinical laboratory service that is less than
the charge would have been if the clinical laboratory providing the
service billed a patient, client, or customer directly for the
clinical laboratory service, and if that clinical laboratory charge
is less than the charge listed in the clinical laboratory's schedule
of fees pursuant to subdivision (b).
   (2) Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit a
physician and surgeon to charge more than he or she was charged for
the laboratory service by the clinical laboratory providing the
service unless the additional charge is for service actually rendered
by the physician and surgeon to the patient.
